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THIS IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES of articles about real estate disclosures. In this column, I discuss the “big three” – floods, fires and earthquakes. These are the focus of the new California Natural Hazard Disclosure law which went into effect in early 1998. This law requires that sellers or their agents give prospective buyers a “Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement” if residential property lies within one or more of six specified areas.
However, informed buyers should know more about these potential hazards than is revealed in a disclosure statement.
Flood Hazards
The new California Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement includes two categories of flood hazards: 1) FEMA flood hazard zones and 2) inundation areas (areas of potential flooding after a dam failure).
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has developed a nation-wide series of flood insurance rate maps as part of the National Flood Insurance Program created by Congress in the 1960s. Your local planning or building department should have a collection of these maps on file. Also, the FEMA flood maps are now widely available on CD-ROM. If you own property within a flood hazard area and apply for a federally-related loan, you will probably have to buy flood insurance.
The FEMA maps show areas of potential 100-year floods, which include the banks of most river and stream courses as well as ocean and lake fronts. Unfortunately, this is also exactly where a lot of people have built their houses or want to build them.
As the name implies, a 100-year flood has the probability of occurring once every 100 years. So is there really that much risk living in a flood zone? In reality, devastating floods can occur more often than this. Engineers use these hypothetical “100-year events” mainly to establish design limitations, because it’s not cost-effective to build structures to withstand anything greater than this.
According to FEMA, If your house is in a flood hazard area the odds are 26-to-1 that you will suffer flood damage before experiencing a fire loss. However, water doesn’t know how to read a map. Floods often extend beyond the official flood zone boundaries. Buyers should find out if the property they intend to buy has ever been flooded for any reason. Also, all property with even the remote possibility of being flooded should be covered by flood insurance.
Dam and levee failures, tsunamis and seiches can also cause flood damage. A tsunami is a large ocean wave caused by an earthquake or undersea landslide. A seiche is a similar sort of giant wave which takes place in a lake or inland body of water.
Fire Hazards
The new California Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement includes two categories of fire hazards: 1) very high fire hazard severity zones and 2) wildland fire areas (also known as state responsibility areas or SRAs).
On October 20, 1991, a fire raged through the Oakland-Berkeley Hills killing 25 people, injuring 150 others and destroying 2, 843 single-family homes and 433 apartments. This disaster caused $1.53 billion in damage and prompted the State Legislature to order the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) to identify “very high fire hazard severity zones.” CDF is required to map these zones and send this information to the appropriate cities, counties and fire districts.
A previous law requires the State Board of Forestry to identify those lands where CDF has the primary duty for wildland fire prevention suppression. These are commonly called “state responsibility areas,” or SRAs. CDF is required to send copies of these SRA maps to the affected counties. You can contact your local planning or building department or CDF to find out where to get these maps.
The California climate, with mild rainy winters and hot dry summers, creates some of the most severe wildfire conditions in the world. As more people build homes in rural areas, these fire hazards are increasing dramatically. Some of the most popular residential areas are located within natural habitats which periodically burn as part of their fire-adapted ecology, such as chaparral and closed-cone pine forests.
CDF publishes some good fire safety standards for rural homeowners. They recommend you clear all flammable vegetation a minimum of 30 feet around your home (100 feet on hillsides and high hazard areas), remove trees and limbs within 10 feet of your chimney or stove pipe, and stack firewood at least 30 feet from any structure. Plants with high resin content, such as eucalyptus and pine trees, are the most flammable.
CDF also recommends that private roadways be designed to accommodate large, heavy fire-fighting equipment. Roads should have two 9-foot lanes to allow emergency vehicles to pass, and flammable vegetation should be cleared to ten feet on either side of the road. Bridges should be able to support a 40,000-pound fire truck, and dead-end roads should have turnaround areas for large emergency vehicles.
CDF recommends that rural homeowners maintain a 2,500 gallon emergency water supply for fire fighting. This could be a water storage tank or a even a small pond. If you are building a house or replacing your roof, CDF recommends using non-combustible roofing materials. All chimneys and stove pipes should be covered with * inch mesh spark-arresting screens.
If you are buying a house in a fire hazard area, check to see if the property complies with CDF guidelines. If you already live in a fire hazard area, do what you can to make your house fire safe. If you live on a private road, consider getting together with your neighbors and improving the road to accommodate emergency vehicles.
Earthquake Hazards
The new California Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement includes two categories of earthquake hazards: 1) earthquake fault zones and 2) seismic hazard zones.
Earthquake fault zones are those areas identified by the State Geologist which pose hazards to structures from surface faulting and fault creep. However, a building has to be practically on top of a fault line to be damaged this way. In Mendocino County there are two major earthquake fault zones. The San Andreas fault zone runs along the Garcia River and heads out to sea between Manchester and Irish Beach. The Maacama fault zone runs along the east side of the Ukiah Valley.
California’s Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act went into effect in March 1973 and has been amended a number of times since. This act requires the Chief of the Division of Mines and Geology (the State Geologist) to delineate earthquake fault zones along known active faults in California. The act requires cities and counties to withhold development permits for sites within the zones until geologic investigations show the sites aren’t threatened by future fault movement.
But, as we Californians know, earthquakes can cause damage far beyond their epicenter, or the surface directly above the fault movement. In fact, the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was caused by a shift in the San Andreas fault centered near Point Arena, about 80 miles northwest.
Earthquake damage usually diminishes with distance from the epicenter, but not always. Saturated artificial land fills tend to amplify seismic waves, making the earth shake like Jell-0 and even liquefy, causing buildings to sink into the ground. Earthquakes can also trigger landslides on unstable slopes, and can even cause a tsunami or seiche along an ocean front or lake shore. These areas of seismic risk are called seismic hazard zones.
You can contact your county planning or building department to find earthquake hazard maps. You may have to order the maps from a private vendor, and some may even be available on CD-ROM. If you suspect the property you want to buy is on saturated ground or un-engineered fill (such as in a harbor or filled marshland), consult a structural geologist.
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Chet Boddy, Real Estate Appraisal, Sales and Consulting
43300 LR Airport Road, #59, Little River, CA 95456
707-937-4011, office
707-937-4818, fax
chet@chetboddy.com
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Copyright © 2002 Chet Boddy, All Rights Reserved
Chet Boddy is a Certified General Real Estate Appraiser, Realtor“ and real estate consultant who has lived on the Mendocino Coast since 1976. Look for this and other real estate columns on Chet’s web site at www.chetboddy.com
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